Rhetorical Analysis Of Growing Up Digital, Wired For Distraction

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With all of the technological advances there are more things smartphones, computers, etc. can do. More things to distract us from what we need to do. In the article “Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction” Matt Richtel builds his argument by using the anecdotes of a few specific high school students and teachers. Richtel also understands his audience because he develops the article in a way where readers are introduced to the topic of digital media’s effect on students with sufficient and reliable information. Richtel uses Vishal as his prime example to illustrate the causes and effects of digital media on students. “…Vishal, a bright 17 year-old, should already have finished the book, Kurt Vonnegut’s “Cats Cradle”. Richtel uses Vishal as …show more content…

“Their brains are rewarded not for staying on task but for jumping to the next thing,” said Michael Rich, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and executive director of the Center on Media and Child Health in Boston. And the effects could linger: “The worry is we’re raising a generation of kids in front of screens whose brains are going to be wired differently.” Richtel is using information from a reliable source, a professor who is generally looked up to, and someone you can trust. By using this Richtel is strengthening his argument. Richtel gives examples on how the distractions affect students in the long run. “Researchers looked at how the use of these media affected the boys’ brainwave patterns while sleeping and their ability to remember their homework in the subsequent days. They found that playing video games led to markedly lower sleep quality than watching TV, and also led to a “significant decline” in the boys’ ability to remember vocabulary words.” Richtel is including the dangers and effects on technological distractions to students. He is using this to argue that not all technology is good for

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